Driveclub has been impressing the world since its February 2013 announcement alongside the PlayStation 4. Its unique social and multifaceted take on racing, its nearly absurd attention to the tiniest details, and more recently, its absolutely stunning graphics have added it to many wish lists.
Even with all of the above, PS.Blog EU’s Fred Dutton on June 5 published a list of facts about Driveclub that elevates its attention to detail from “nearly absurd” to “just plain crazy.” It’s divided into several sections, detailing everything from the weather, plants, and animals to the cars themselves to in-game audio and artificial intelligence. It is clear from reading it that Evolution Studios spared no expense in making certain that Driveclub looks, sounds, and feels as accurate as possible.
For example, the very first fact explains that Evolution used data from NASA to accurately map the night sky so that players will see true-to-life constellations as they drive. Skies are dynamically generated so that players will never see the same sky twice. Wind plays a factor in cloud behavior, and also interacts with objects on or near the ground depending on their height.
Spectators dress for the weather and occupy places that would really give them a good view of the race in real life. Players will see the appropriate wildlife in the appropriate locations at the appropriate time of day. Somewhere in India is a flock of 19,000 flamingos that all “behave independently of each other.”
Evolution spent seven months on each car and took at least a thousand pictures of the interior and exterior of each one. It captured tiny details like the Pagani name embossed on small screw heads, designed multiple layers of paint that come apart as the vehicle takes damage, and made absolutely certain that the car’s dashboard reflects onto the windshield in bright light and that the cars get dirty as they are driven.
It used 16 microphones to capture audio recordings from each vehicle–recordings that were so good, “BMW and Mercedes-Benz AMG requested copies to replace their existing libraries.” Actually, the 42nd fact states that “in many cases, Evolution’s audio captures are the most high definition recordings of these cars in existence.” It used that audio well, shunning audio filters and stock samples and using pure recordings for every camera aspect.
Despite all of this and more, Evolution promises that a track will take no more than fifteen seconds to load.
Naturally, the most important part of the game will be how fun and engaging it is, but for just a moment, forget sim vs. arcade. Forget social features, microtransactions, delays, and all of the other adversities that racing games nowadays tend to face. Graphics lovers and racing fans, if this doesn’t have you salivating, you’re probably dehydrated.
Gamers can quench their thirst and finally get their hands on Driveclub October 7, 2014 in North America and October 8 in Europe with the exception of the UK, which will have to wait until October 10. Sony and Evolution are still planning to offer a free version of the game for PlayStation Plus members.